THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



181 



space below the top of the hive, and 

 cover with a board. I know of no 

 better flexible substance to place 

 directly upon the frames than enam- 

 eled cloth.— \V^ Z. Hutchinson. 



I have used enameled cloth for 

 about ten years with the best of suc- 

 cess. The bees very seldom cut a 

 hole in it, and put but little propolis 

 on it, compared to cloth of any kind 

 without the enameled surface. It is 

 cheap, costing 2% to 3 cents per hive, 

 and I have some in use that have 

 been used for several years.— H. D. 

 Cutting. 



Convention Notices. 



tF" The bee-keepers of Manitowoc ant1 adjoin- 

 ing counties mil meet at Kiel. Wis., on March •2?>, 

 ISSB, for the purpose of organizing a bee Iteepers 

 asBociaUon. J. H. Kobkrts. 



jy The Wabash County Bee-Keepera' Associa- 

 tion will meet at the Court House in Wabash, Ind., 

 on Wednesday. Apr. 7. 1886, at 10 a.m. All bee- 

 keepers are invited. J. J. Martin, Sec. 



t3P' The bee-keepers of Stark and adjolninK 

 counties are earnestly requested to meet at Grange 

 HalUover Farmer's Bank), Canton. O., on Tues- 

 day, Apr. 13, 188B, for the purpose of effecting a 

 permanent organization, Mark Thomson, Sec. 



fW The Southern Illinois Bee-Keepers' Associ- 

 ation will hold its ad annual convention in Teague 

 & Harris's Hall at Duquoin. Ills., on Thursday, 

 Apr. «, 188G, at U) a.m. A general invitation is 

 extended. F. H. Kennedy, Sec. 



|^~ The Tllinois Central Bee-Keepers' 

 Asaoeiatiou will hold Its next meeting at 

 Mt. Sterling, Ills., on Tuesday and Wednes- 

 day, Oct, 19 and '20, 1886, 



J. M. Hambaugh, Sec. 



1^' The semi-annual meeting of the Western 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will be held in Kansas 

 City, Mo., on Apr. 29 and 30. 1886. It is desired 

 that this meeting shall be better than any of its 

 predecessors. Essays will be read on the leading 

 subjects in bee-culture, which will be announced 

 aasoon as arrangemenis are completed. Let all 

 who have bees, queens, fixtures, etc., bring them 

 If possible. Due notice will be given in regard to 

 a hail. P. Baldwin, Sec. 



ly The Union Bee-Keepers' Association of 

 Western Iowa will meet in Dexter, Iowa, on April 

 10, 1886, at 10 a.m, M. E. Darby, Sec. 



By A cordial invitation is extended to all to 

 attend the 8th annual meeting of the Texas State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, to be held at Judge W. 

 H. Andrews' bee-farm, at McKinney. 'rex., on May 

 5 and H. inne. Indications fur a grand meeting 

 grow brighter every day, and every effort will be 

 made to render this meeting the best and largest 

 ever held in the State. No hotel bills to pay. 



B. F. Carroll, Sec. 



Honey as Food and Medicine, 



tS^ To create Honey Markets In every 

 village, town and city, wide-awake honey 

 producers should get the Leaflets " Why Eat 

 Honey" (onlj' ,^10 cents per 100), or else the 

 pamphlets on "Honey as Food and Medicine," 

 and scatter them plentifully, and the result 

 will be a demand for all of their crops at 

 remunerative prices, " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine " are sold at the following prices : 



Single copy, 5 cts. ; per doz., 40 cts, ; per 

 hundred, $2.,50. Five hundred will be sent 

 postpaid for $10.00; or 1,000 for $15,00. 

 On orders of 100 or more, we will print, if 

 desired, on the cover-page, "Presented by," 

 etc. (giving the name and address of the bee- 

 keeper who scatters them). 



Xo give away a copy of " Honey as Food 

 and Medicine " to every one who buys a 

 package of honey, will sell almost any quan- 

 tity of it. 



Explanatory — The flgures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; O* east ; 

 K3 west: and this 6 northeast: ^ northwest: 

 o. southeast; and 9 southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



" Differential Diaposis; 



N. W. M'LAIN. 



Perhaps the reader may inquire 

 what has happenednow, which should 

 furnish occasion for an article with 

 such a ponderous and paralyzing cap- 

 tion, I hasten to disclaim any sinister 

 motive, and proceed at once to locate 

 the responsibility where it properly 

 belongs. Dr. G. L. Tinker is the 

 man, and the occasion was the reply 

 to Query, No. 18.5, viz : " Are queen's 

 eggs, when first laid, male or female '?" 



Although the correct answering of 

 the question in the form in which it 

 was probably intended to state it, re- 

 quires correct observation and exact 

 knowledge of the operation of the 

 most subtile influences and delicate 

 organic structures known to the em- 

 bryologist, an off-hand opinion on the 

 question, as it was stated, seems to 

 have cost the Doctor no effort what- 

 ever, for he promptly replies : '' Yes, 

 of course they are," And I do not 

 hesitate to deny that his answer can 

 be successfully controverted, 



I like to thiiik of our bee-periodicals 

 as fruit-baskets, into which are 

 dropped the product of careful, pains- 

 taking and well-directed experiment, 

 patient observation and ripe experi- 

 ence. I have distinct recollection of 

 having found in these fruit-baskets, 

 at intervals during the past three 

 years, some cocoanuts (mark you, not 

 ''chestnuts") grown by the aforesaid 

 G. L. Tinker, of "The Wintering 

 Problem " variety," which contained 

 about as much milk and strong meat 

 as any specimens I have had the 

 pleasure of sampling. Apart from 

 the fact that the grain of the fruit 

 seemed ii little '" coarse," as the hor- 

 ticulturists say, the fruit was to my 

 liking, I suspect that while matur- 

 ing a little too much " nitrogenous 

 matter " had been taken up into its 

 constitution. 



Having been a reader of the various 

 bee-papers for several years, I am 

 quite conversant with the views of 

 many whose names have thus grown 

 familiar; and all will agree, that a 

 very fair presentment of the charac- 

 teristics of a writer flows from and is 

 outlined by the point of his pen ; and 

 that he who habitually reads between 

 1 the lines, will obtain a view in profile 



of him who writes. J5y this means I 

 feel that I have had a long and pleas- 

 ant acquaintance with many who will 

 perhaps read these lines, but whose 

 faces I have never looked upon, and 

 Dr. Tinker is one among that number, 



" But," the Doctor says, " a differ- 

 ential diagnosis" of freshly 1-aid 

 queen's-eggs "would floor" him. 

 Now I submit that it would be inex- 

 cusably mean to stand by and see a 

 friend -'floored " by a little thing like 

 a queen's egg, especially so when the 

 egg is fresh. With the assurance that 

 the specimens are of recent produc- 

 tion, we may proceed to inquire what 

 differential principle is revealed by a 

 diagnosis of queen's eggs. I need not 

 here explain that each egg in the 

 ovaries of the queen is generated from 

 a nascent cell ; that all eggs when 

 they leave the ovaries are unfecun- 

 dated, and possess the innate power 

 of producing drones only ; that after 

 fecundation the queen may generate 

 two genders ; that fluxion of male and 

 female elements produce the female ; 

 that sex is determined by the volition 

 of the queen ; that the eggs intended 

 to produce drones pass directly from 

 the ovaries through the oviduct to 

 the ovipositor; that those eggs in- 

 tended to produce females, are, when 

 leaving the ovaries, diverted by voli- 

 tion of the queen, and directed into 

 the fertilizing sack, and that while 

 passiner through the folds of this sack, 

 the differentiating, the sex-determin- 

 ing principle is introduced ; after 

 which the fecundated eggs pass on 

 through the oviduct to the ovipositor. 

 I have not been able to discover any 

 difference in the shape and superficial 

 appearance of the eggs, whether 

 fecundated or unfecundated. The 

 egg of a queen -bee, as seen through 

 the microscope, is a most delicately 

 constructed and beautiful object. 



Mr. Frank Cheshire, in the Jottrnal 

 of the Royal Microscopical Society, of 

 London, England, so aptly describes 

 the appearance of a queen's egg as 

 seen through the microscope, that the 

 object seems verily present before the 

 eye of the reader. He says : " If an 

 egg be removed from either a worker 

 or drone cell by the wetted point of a 

 carael's-hair pencil, and then micro- 

 scropically examined in water or 

 glycerine, its surface will be found 

 beautifully netted (the chorion), al- 

 most as though a tiny pearl had been 

 covered with what the ladies call 

 ' blonde,' hundreds of the meshes of 

 which are required to coat it com- 

 pletely. Towards one end the netting 

 makes its cells long and narrow and 

 pointing towards a circular spot, just 

 as the cordage of a balloon points 

 toward the upper valve bv which the 

 gas is allowed to escape. This circular 

 spot is really an opening called the 

 micropyle, by which the spermatozoon 

 enters and unites its material with 

 the queen-cell, so bringing about fer- 

 tilization." 



" The tiny spermatozoon not only 

 differentiates the entire creature, but 

 communicates unerringly differences 

 of species or mere variety even. The 

 spermatozoa from Cyprian, Italian 

 and English bees are to the most re- 

 fined microscopical examination iden- 



